Burke Road Grade Separation Business Case

Glen Iris, Victoria, Australia
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Facilitating the removal of a dysfunctional and unsafe road and rail crossing on one of Melbourne’s busiest level crossings.

26,500

vehicles per day

158

trains per day

Alleviating one of Melbourne's most well-known bottlenecks.

Dubbed the ‘Metro Level Crossing Blitz’ program, the Victorian Government sought to remove unsafe level crossings across the state and identified Burke Road’s rail crossing as one of its busiest, most complex and problematic.

Manually controlled, Burke Road caused significant congestion during peak hours and was closed 40% of the time, having an adverse impact on the nearby Monash Freeway which carries 82,000 cars a day.

Arcadis assisted VicRoads in the development and preparation of a business case for presentation to the Victorian Government. It was the first ever VicRoads business case to include an urban design value element, and presented Arcadis with an opportunity to assess the urban and community effects any proposed solution for the bottleneck. The need for balanced decisions had to be made with the understanding that the right urban design solution may not necessarily constitute what was considered as the best road engineering solution.

Ultimately through road, rail and urban design options in tandem with impact assessments, stakeholder coordination and network integration, VicRoad’s business case was successful in its recommendation to remove the level crossing and alleviate one of Melbourne’s most well-known bottlenecks.